02696cam a22003257 4500001000700000003000500007005001700012008004100029100002000070245014300090260006600233490004200299500001900341520104100360530006101401538007201462538003601534690012901570690007001699690008301769690007001852690007501922690006901997690009102066700001902157710004202176830007702218856003802295856003702333w16800NBER20170817233033.0170817s2011 mau||||fs|||| 000 0 eng d1 aWei, Shang-Jin.10aSex Ratios, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth in the People's Republic of Chinah[electronic resource] /cShang-Jin Wei, Xiaobo Zhang. aCambridge, Mass.bNational Bureau of Economic Researchc2011.1 aNBER working paper seriesvno. w16800 aFebruary 2011.3 aChina experiences an increasingly severe relative surplus of men in the pre-marital age cohort. The existing literature on its consequences focuses mostly on negative aspects such as crime. In this paper, we provide evidence that the imbalance may also stimulate economic growth by inducing more entrepreneurship and hard work. First, new domestic private firms - an important engine of growth - are more likely to emerge from regions with a higher sex ratio imbalance. Second, the likelihood for parents with a son to be entrepreneurs rises with the local sex ratio. Third, households with a son in regions with a more skewed sex ratio demonstrate a greater willingness to accept relatively dangerous or unpleasant jobs and supply more work days. In contrast, the labor supply pattern by households with a daughter is unrelated to the sex ratio. Finally, regional GDP tends to grow faster in provinces with a higher sex ratio. Since the sex ratio imbalance will become worse in the near future, this growth effect is likely to persist. aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers. aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files. aMode of access: World Wide Web. 7aE2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aF3 - International Finance2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aF43 - Economic Growth of Open Economies2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aJ1 - Demographic Economics2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aJ2 - Demand and Supply of Labor2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aO1 - Economic Development2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aO4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity2Journal of Economic Literature class.1 aZhang, Xiaobo.2 aNational Bureau of Economic Research. 0aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)vno. w16800.4 uhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w1680041uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w16800